LaVyrle Spencer

Then Came Heaven by LaVyrle SpencerLate summer, Browerville, Minnesota, 1950: Life is just about perfect for Eddie Olczak. A man of unshakable faith, he derives intense pleasure from the life he's built as devoted husband and father to his beloved wife, Krystyna, and their daughters, Anne and Lucy, and as the dedicated handyman for St. Joseph's, the Catholic church that is the cornerstone of Browerville life. But when a tragic accident cuts Krystyna's life short, Eddie is sure his heart is broken forever. As friends and relatives rally around the family in the dark days and weeks that follow, providing meals, companionship, and emotional support, there is one member of the community who is unable to express what Krystyna's loss has meant to her. Sister Regina, the girls' teacher at St. Joseph's, has always felt a special affinity for the family. Yet her religious vows prevent her from becoming too close to them, even in their time of need. Time passes, and Sister Regina and Eddie Olczak continue to cross paths. And deep inside, they realize there is something between them - more than a kinship, a connection that goes beyond their shared love of Krystyna and the girls. Thrilled - and secretly frightened - they both must summon the courage to look within their hearts and make their own choices.Read More...HidePages: 368AccoladesNew York Times Best Seller

In the late nineteenth century, in a small village in northern India, a thirteen-year-old Brahmin widow meets a Muslim sarangi player and elopes with him. Many years later, their daughter Jaddanbai moves to Bombay and becomes a star of the early talkies. Chấteau Marine, her home on Marine Drive, is famous for its evening mehfils and for the dreams it nurtures: regular visitors include Dilip Kumar, Mehboob and Kamal Amrohi. It is also the home of Fatima, Jaddanbai's daughter, who will set the screen ablaze as Nargis, the most accomplished actress of her time.

Far removed from this world of glamour, a young boy named Balraj Dutt spends his teenage years attempting to rehabilitate himself and his family after the trauma of Partition. In 1950, at the age of twenty, he arrives in Bombay. And there his life takes an unexpected turn: he is given the lead role in a new film, and is soon on his way to becoming Sunil Dutt, the film star.

Then comes the moment that transforms both their lives: on 1 March 1957, during the making of Mother India, Nargis is trapped in a circle of flames and Sunil risks his life to save her. They recuperate together, and fall in love. Nargis has been in a long but futile relationship with the mercurial Raj Kapoor, and in Sunil she finally finds an anchor. Their relationship is stormy and secretive to start with, but it survives every crisis to culminate in a quite wedding on 11 March 1958. What follows are years of togetherness, including the joys of caring for three children, Sanjay, Namrata and Priya but also days of pain and heartbreak: financuial trouble, Nargis's illness, Sanjay's addiction to drugs.

Based on the diaries and letters of Nargis, Sunil and their daughter Priya, as well as on conversations and interviews with family and friends, Darlingji ? as they often addressed each other is a probing yet affectionate biography of two extraordinary people and their love for each other.

Four years in the making, SuperFreakonomics asks not only the tough questions, but the unexpected ones: What's more dangerous, driving drunk or walking drunk? Why is chemotherapy prescribed so often if it's so ineffective? Can a sex change boost your salary?

SuperFreakonomics challenges the way we think all over again, exploring the hidden side of everything with such questions as:

How is a street prostitute like a department-store Santa?

Why are doctors so bad at washing their hands?

How much good do car seats do?

What's the best way to catch a terrorist?

Did TV cause a rise in crime?

What do hurricanes, heart attacks, and highway deaths have in common?

Are people hard-wired for altruism or selfishness?

Can eating kangaroo save the planet?

Which adds more value: a pimp or a Realtor?

Love and a Bad Hair Day

Love and a Bad Hair Dayby Annie Flannigan

Jolene Hadley Corbett believes in the power of a good hair day, but on a bad hair day terrible things happen -- men run off, cars break down, and the skies open up all over your new favorite outfit. So when Ry O'Malley comes riding back into the town of Verbena, North Carolina, Jolene immediately checks the mirror. Yep, just as she suspects -- bad hair!

The O'Malley heir apparent -- taller, handsomer and a lot sexier than anyone remembers -- is determined to knock the whole town on its ear by demolishing his inheritance: the South Winds Trav'O'Tel and All Day Breakfast Buffet. Okay, so it's not a luxury resort, but its destruction would wreck the local economy...not to mention that antacid sales at the drugstore would probably drop considerably.

Jolene's not about to let a man who once pulled off the top of her bathing suit (okay, even though she was fourteen and she was in the pool) get away with this. So she gears up for the final chapter of the long-running O'Malley-Hadley feud. But first, she's got to find that can of hairspray...